‘Chloe’ Scribe Erin Cressida Wilson on Using Sex as a Narrative Language

Screenwriter and playwright Erin Cressida Wilson found an unlikely source of inspiration when writing her new erotically-charged thriller, “Chloe.”

“In a weird way, the comedy ‘Dave’ was a big part of my development process,” said Cressida, referring to the 1993 Ivan Reitman film about a temp agency employee (Kevin Kline) who gets talked into impersonating the President of the United States — much to the chagrin of the First Lady (Sigourney Weaver). “Both films are about the complexities of a long term marriage, and falling back in love with the one you chose, and both are having a virtual relationship through a surrogacy. He’s an obsessive deep thinker, that Ivan Reitman.”

Wilson’s kind words for Reitman are perhaps better put in context after learning Reitman is a producer on “Chloe” and brought both Wilson and director Atom Egoyan onto the project. Loosely based on Anne Fontaine’s 2003 French film “Nathalie,” “Chloe” stars Julianne Moore as a gynecologist who fears her music professor husband (Liam Neeson) is cheating on her. To confirm her fears, she hires Chloe, a prostitute played by Amanda Seyfried, to seduce her husband and report back with the details. The two eventually become embroiled in their own complex, erotically-charged relationship — the kind Wilson loves best.

“I think of sex as the language, and not the theme, of my work,” said Wilson, whose resume includes the screenplay for the sadomasochist drama “Secretary,” the radio series-turned book “The Erotica Project,” and plays such as “The Trail of Her Inner Thigh.” “I have also historically liked flipping clichés on their head, so I find scenes, like when Julianne’s character goes into the bar and hires Chloe, kind of kinky, because we don’t what she’s doing at first. I also love the scene in the cab where Julianne acts like a regular old john to Amanda, and is so cold and horrible. The opportunity to stage a woman hiring a prostitute opens up so many avenues of thought.”

In taking on “Chloe” as a writing project, Wilson — who has a five-year-old son with actor and “partner-man” J. C. MacKenzie and currently runs the Dramatic Writing Program at the University of California at Santa Barbara — said she looked at her own relationship and others to ponder the question of how “a couple falls back in love after they’ve changed diapers together.”

Wilson also touched upon the screenplay with her students, whom she tries to keep posted on the developments in her career. “Originally, I thought it was strange when teachers taught their own work, but now I teach “Secretary,’” Cressida said. “The way I see it, I’m the students’ guest artist for the day. The often ask me very not nice questions, and have problems with the script.”

As for future projects, Wilson is adapting novelist Lisa See’s “Peony in Love.” The story revolves around a 17th-Century Chinese girl who dies, comes back as a ghost and falls in love with a mortal. “She eventually loses her virginity to him, which took me a long time to figure out how to portray,” she said. “But I finally cracked it.”